The Making and Implementation of the Belt and Road Policy

In a speech delivered at Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan, on 7 September 2013, President Xi invited central Asian countries to work ‘innovatively’ with China to build a ‘Silk Road Economic Belt’ (SREB, or the Belt) for close economic ties, cooperation and joint development to benefit people across the land of Eurasia. In his speech at the Indonesian Parliament on 3 October 2013, President Xi invited ASEAN countries to work with China to build a ‘21st Century Maritime Silk Road’ (MSR, or the Road) for achieving joint development and co-prosperity. These two proposals, put together, were the original ‘One Belt, One Road initiative’.